Dia de Los Muertes!

We had a super fun afternoon celebrating Dia de los Muertes at the DIA

Sophia loved decorating her sugar skull

And we got to see a fun shadow puppet play based on a Mexican folk tale.

Lazy Saturday morning...

Had a rainy Saturday morning, so we spent it at the cider mill.

Eating doughnuts and drinking cider.

Perfect Michigan morning.

Hallowe'en at Greenfield Village

We had a blast at Halloween Nights at Greenfield Village

Amazing costumes, jack-o-lanterns, and candy!

(do you see the Ford logo and Model-T?)

Some pictures of our awesome costumes.

Help me Obi Wan...

Who you calling scruffy?

Rick is so proud of his blaster.

She's just so cute! I mostly wanted something warm for when we're out at night. So this was perfect.

Petra has gone to the dark side.

Dog Vader

We had so much fun at Greenfield Village

Some of it was pretty scary- but Sophia loved it all!

Sophia's favorite part was CANDY!!!

The whole path was lined with jack-o-lanterns.

It was very cool, and Sophia wanted to stop to look at every single one.

Dancing skeletons

A perfect creepy full moon for the occasion

Sophia and I try out the newest model of witch's broom

A tree FULL of jack-o-lanterns

So cool!

And the headless horsemen!

He actually chased Ichabod around on horseback through the fields. 

So cool!

We had several people ask to take our picture- haha

Costume success!

Let the Hallowe'en festivities begin!!

Mr. (and Mrs. and Baby) Smith Goes to Washington!

Washington.

Our nations capitol.

It may be shut down- but we took it by storm!

First we stopped and ate the biggest sandwich ever in Pittsburgh

Beautiful colors all the way!

Sophia on hearing about congresses inability to compromise.

Toddler approval rating- 0%

Saying 'hi!' to President Obama

So these signs were everywhere.

And everywhere people were disregarding them!

Yay for civil disobedience!

Sophia and Rick breaking the law and going into the WWII Memorial.

Everyone was doing it!

Even Glen Beck!

Hahaha- if anyone knows us, then you must know how insanely ridiculous we think this man is.

It was beyond hilarious seeing him doing a publicity stunt here.

Jefferson Memorial

As close as we could get- womp. womp.

At the FDR Memorial

I didn't even know it existed?!

It was awesome!

Love this quote.

Rick is America.

Next stop- MLK Jr Memorial

Was super excited to see it.

Sophia just being cute.

On to the Capitol!

Taking a break on the steps of the Capital.

Good to see at least one reasonable person there.

I couldn't stop singing "I'm just a bill..."

Dreaming of being a future Congresswoman??? 

Best. Burgers. Of. My. Life.

Worthy of documentation.

Stop at the National Building Museum

So beautiful!

Would have never gone here if not for the shutdown. 

So there's something good?

Building, in the National Building Museum.

Meta.

Even the subway's architecture is fantastic.

And we got to spend a beautiful morning at Mt Vernon

Overlooking the Potomac 

Sophia, once again, not impressed.

(tired baby face)

This is as good as we get folks.

George's fantastic gardens.

And we got to see the National Cathedral

I've never been here before, and was so impressed!

So beautiful! And we attended a service, which was awesome to experience the quiet reverence of the building before it opened to al the tourists again.

And not to mention- fantastic sermon.

Sometimes paid clergy ain't so bad, you know?

Inside- just beautiful.

It has all the 50 state flags.

A lot of the architecture and symbols are focused on unity of purpose- meaningful for where it's located.

All the architecture very reminiscent of Notre Dame

The organ- sounded SO phenomenal

The wood coral seats- loved it

Rose window

I just love the detail in cathedrals.

Beautiful mosaic

George Washington.

I loved where they had this, and the light coming in on him.

Big.

And truly the BEST part of our trip was seeing some great old friends.

Meeting up with Christian- haven't seen each other since High School!

Alicia- my old college roommate, and best friend!

Then we both got married- and Rick and Mike became best friends too!

And now all our kids are best friends!

(at least they all really liked to play together)

It was such a blast to see them

These two were so cute together

Cute kids...

...wonder where they get it from?

Nah- we still got it!